Central Bank of Russia not yet giving further signals about June rate, will weight all factors

PERM. May 21 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia's key rate decision at its June 19 meeting will be based on a comprehensive set of data, Mikhail Belov, advisor to the CBR deputy governor, told Interfax.

"I'm not just repeating this without reason, that the board's decision ... We'll have a lot more data before [June] 19, and it could be varied," Belov said on the sidelines of the Perm Business Days forum.

He said it was too soon to make forecasts, and that the rate decision was not preordained.

Belov said the decision would be influenced, among other things, by inflation data for May, inflation expectations, business monitoring, lending statistics and other economic data.

Asked about the situation with inflation, Belov said a longer-term perspective was needed to assess the sustainability of the slowdown in price growth.

"Weekly data give us cautious optimism. But inflation data alone cannot be considered the sole and most important source of information... A longer-term perspective is needed. I think we'll all have a final opinion closer to the middle of the year," he said.

Commenting on monetary conditions, he described them as "fairly tight."

"We need to understand that this is partly due to the high key rates that have been in place for the past year and a half," Belov said.

In this respect he said the impact of the Central Bank's key rate decisions usually manifests itself over a horizon of four to six quarters.

Regarding part-time employment, he said this was not yet widespread and did not fundamentally alter the labor market.

"From the figures, we see that underemployment, including that initiated by employers, is currently higher than, for example, a year ago. But it is not yet structural or widespread," Belov said.